Jeffrey L. Frischkorn takes you with him as he chronicles his outdoors adventures around Northeast Ohio and beyond.

Thursday, March 2, 2017

New CCW permits up in Ohio for 2016 but so are revocations, denials, suspensions

Ohioans went
gunning for new concealed carry permits at a rapid-fire pace during 2016.

Statistics
provided by Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine shows that last year the state’s
88 county sheriffs issued 117,953 new concealed carry permits, renewed 40,986 permits
and granted 43 temporary permits for the presentation of a total of 158,982
licenses to carry a weapon concealed.

By Ohio law
the state attorney general must file an annual report to the governor and state
legislative officials as to the results of the county sheriffs’ CCW-issuing activities.

The issuance
of new CCW permits reached a lofty 96,972 in 2013. That number declined to
58,066 in 2014 but regained lost ground in 2015 when the number jumped to
71,589, and then catapulted to the 117,953 figure last year.

Though the
issuance of new CCW permits easily outpaced that of 2015, not so the number of
renewals, which are required every five years. In fact, renewals have been on a
steady decline. In 2015 the number of CCW permit renewals had ascended to
52,146 but dropped to 44,551 in 2014 and drooped to the 40,986 figure last
year.

Also, the
numbers of CCW permit revocations and denials are both on the uptick as are
suspensions.

Revocations
have steadily increased since 2012 when the figure was 203. That number rose to
286 in 2013; 373 in 2014; 530 in 2015; and 697 last year. The reasons for
revocations include the permit holder moving out of state, dying, no longer
desiring to be a licensee, convicted of a disqualifying crime, adjudicated as
becoming subject to the law’s restrictions on the grounds of mental health
issues, drug- or alcohol dependency.

For CCW
application denials, DeWine’s office notes that here too the numbers have
increased. In 2014 the number of CCW application rejections was 882 – after dropping
from the 1,142 in 2013. However, in 2015 the number of CCW permit rejections
climbed to 1,117, and surged further to 1,634 last year.

Looking at CCW
suspensions, the category has demonstrated a general rise. Under Ohio law,
sheriffs must suspend a CCW permit upon being notified that a licensee has been
charged of certain specified crimes, or if the licensee is the subject of a
court-ordered protection order. Should the licensee be acquitted or the charges
dropped, the CCW permit is returned.

In 2012, the
state’s 88 county sheriffs suspended 788 CCW permits. That number rose to 1,154
in 2013 and climbed to 1,412 in 2015 but tripped to 1,319 in 2015, only to step
up again, this time to 1,669 in 2016.

The Top Five
counties for new CCW permits issued in 2016 were: Franklin – 7,569; Montgomery –
6,407; Lake – 6,045; Clermont – 4,890; and Butler – 4,467. In all, 39 of Ohio’s
88 counties saw the issuance of 1,000 or more new CCW permits.

For CCW
revocations in 2016; the Top Five counties were: Lake – 274 (the high number
came when it was discovered that an instructor was not state certified and all
of his students became ineligible to keep their permits); Knox – 70; Morrow –
48; Franklin – 40; and Clermont – 25.